‘Game of Thrones’ spoof: What’s in a name? Pretty much everything

June 04, 2012 | 10:09 a.m.

A week ago, as the credits rolled on Season 2’s penultimate episode of “Game of Thrones,” a melancholy song that sounded like a Tom Waits ballad for Middle-earth played (it was actually the National performing “The Rains of Castamere,” with lyrics by none other than George R.R. Martin), but HBO really missed a chance there to use a more fitting song: “We are Family” by Sister Sledge is pretty much perfect for King’s Landing.

That’s the conclusion I reached after watching the video above, which shows that, really, there’s only one pressing conversation topic in the medieval society of Westeros — namely, family names. For the powerful clans that sit at the table of influence and play the figurative “Game of Thrones” (among them House Lannister, House Baratheon and House Stark) the name of the game is, um, the game of the name. And in an age without passport photos that means you have to sprinkle a lot of reminders into everyday conversation.